You girls truly are an inspiration to me and so are your experiences with replica bag sites. Today I thought it would be interesting to discuss about the differences between inspired bags and copy designer handbags.

The first and most important difference is that the first are not branded while the others are. So my question to you is this: how important is the branding to you?

Inspired Handbags vs. Copy Designer Handbags

As I was saying, inspired bags usually have the same style as an original designer bag but they should not have logos, tags, brand engravings and so on. If you buy an inspired handbag you shouldn’t expect it to look exactly like the authentic because that’s not even their purpose.

Copy designer handbags on the other hand should be branded and these are the bags you can actually compare with the real thing. As I said before, it’s important to keep in mind that copy designer bags are not all the same! The quality is very different and price should usually be representative for the quality of the bag. If the prices are very low, those copy designer handbags are probably not made of real leather and the details are not very well-made.

The idea for this post hit me when someone sent me two links of two different sites with the same bag. One of them was an inspired bag and the other one was a replica bag. What I noticed was that even though the inspired bag didn’t have any logos or tags, it looked much more similar to the authentic than the replica. The bag was the Balenciaga Part Time in black lambskin and here are the photos:

Whosbag.com Inspired Balenciaga Part Time

Replica Balenciaga Part Time

So, of course, I encouraged my friend to choose the first one. And then it hit me: if a bag looks almost like an original designer bag but it doesn’t have all these distinctive branding traits, does this make it less likeable? I think it depends.

First of all, some bag styles are so wildly popular that people who know anything about luxury fashion will instantly recognize them. Second of all, if you want to associate yourself with a certain brand, then you will probably choose top quality copy designer handbags that look just like the authentic.

But in my opinion, it’s better to choose an inspired bag than a copy bags that is a very obvious fake. The whole point with replica handbags is that we want them to look so similar to the authentic that no one will be able to tell they’re fakes. And let’s face it, a $100 bag that’s made of imitation leather will never look just like a real designer bag that’s two thousand dollars or so!

Of course, just like in the case of copy designer handbags, inspired bags are not all the same either. Some follow the details of the authentic bag very carefully and are made of really good materials while others look like some sad wannabes. And the prices for inspired bags vary too. And I’ll use photos to prove it to you. First, take a look at this inspired Saint Laurent Sac De Jour bag from whosbag.com and then compare it with the same bag from designers-itbag.net:

Whosbag.com Inspired Saint Laurent Sac De Jour

Saint Laurent Sac De Jour

The difference in quality is very clear. But I don’t want you to think I’m not being fair: one bag is $272 while the other is only $119. So it’s only normal for the more expensive one to look better!

Another reader of the blog told me about this site called baginc.com that also sells inspired bags. They have extremely well-known bag models like the Celine Mini Luggage or the Givenchy Antigona but they have renamed all of them. For example, you can find the Antigona under the name of “Christi”, the Hermes Kelly is here under the name of “Grace”, the Celine Luggage totes are called “Vanessa bags”, the Celine Phantom bags are the “Whitney Bags” and so on.

She told me some details about her experience with this site and I’m going to share them with you:

Baginc.com Review

“My BagInc order was placed on Oct 9th. And I was charged from my acct immediately for $109.65
So about a week went by with no shipment confirmation email… So I emailed them. So I got an email back a couple days later… And we’ve just been going back & forth since. Giving me the runaround. “I’ll send this over to my manager”. Blah Blah Blah…

I finally threatened with filing a claim & mentioning this website to my attorney & I got an email today asking if I still wanted the bag & that it will ship now. When I asked the reason they said there was a “technical issue”. They last told me that the tracking # “should work” and NOT SURPRISINGLY it isn’t… So bummed! Lesson learned. Thanks again for all of your help!”

“Update: The tracking # actually IS working. Delivery is scheduled for next Wed. We will see.. ? Wondering what the quality will be. Which after all of this BS doesn’t seem promising. Have you ever gotten a “Celine” from BagInc or heard about the quality, Eva?”

The point is that it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with a site that sells replica bags or one that sells inspired handbags. You need to be careful in both cases because you can come across scammers on any type of site. So pay attention to the return policy and payment methods for any type of bags site!

I never personally tried this site and after checking it out I can honestly say that I would never do it. And it’s not because they don’t sell copy designer handbags but because most of their bags look cheap and low quality. But I really hope that my friend will send me some photos when her bag arrives, maybe it will turn out to be better than expected!

So girls, after seeing both inspired and replica handbags, please tell me: if you were to choose between a cheap replica bag that’s not just like the authentic and an inspired bag that looks much better but is not branded at all, what would you choose?

Have you ever bought a bag just because it is similar to a popular style from a luxury brand?